


Through Whatever You Lose, You will Always have Me

by tatersalad5001



Series: No Matter What [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: (We use vrains dub names here!), Family, Friendship, Gen, Moving On, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 06:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20773739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001/pseuds/tatersalad5001
Summary: Cal hadn’t even turned on a computer in three months. Not since the final battle against Ai. Not since Yusaku disappeared.Jin was himself again for the first time in a decade. He was talking, smiling, living life and loving it. And Cal loved every second of it. The thought of hearing Jin laugh again had been the only thing getting him out of bed for years. Now that was his reality.





	Through Whatever You Lose, You will Always have Me

**Author's Note:**

> I’m gonna be right by your side no matter what!
> 
> That Vrains finale!!!! I’m still sobbing over it!!! I’m crying!!!! My hands have not stopped since I guess I needed to get this out of my system. This is just a little thing.
> 
> Vrains has helped me through some dark times these recent years, and I’m very thankful. Thank you for everything. I doubt this is the only post-canon fic I’ll write. It means a lot to me, and while I’m sad it was over, it ended phenomenally and I’m glad I got to experience this show.
> 
> Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy this! added some tags and throwing this on tumblr too now, putting stuff up here from mobile is a pain in the butt, man.

There’s a little hot dog truck that usually opens in the Den City Plaza. It used to hold a big secret.

But it’s no longer Playmaker’s base of operations. Cal hadn’t even turned on a computer in three months. Not since the final battle against Ai. Not since Yusaku disappeared.

Jin was himself again for the first time in a decade. He was talking, smiling, living life and loving it. And Cal loved every second of it. The thought of hearing Jin laugh again had been the only thing getting him out of bed for years. Now that was his reality.

Jin even looked like himself again, after he asked Cal to take him to get his haircut. And he insisted on helping his brother out running the truck.

“I thought...you were going to go to college, weren’t you?” Jin asked him once. “On an athletic scholarship. But you started selling hot dogs instead.”

“And coffee,” Cal corrected him. “It’s a respectable business! But things change. It didn’t work out.”

“That’s too bad.” Jin frowned. “I used to look forward to seeing you on tv someday. I was going to watch all your games.”

Cal’s mouth twitched. Ironically, there was a news clip out there that had him in it. Dueling against Playmaker, broadcast to the whole city.

“Well.” Jin clapped his hands together. “Hot dogs were always one of my favorite foods. So I’ll help you out the best I can, and you can pay me in hot dogs!”

“You want to work here?” Cal looked around the truck. “Students aren’t supposed to work part-time jobs like this. You don’t usually like to break the rules. And there’s plenty of more fun things for you to do outside school. You should be making friends, you should be happy.”

The last thing Cal wanted to do was to limit Jin the way he’d limited himself.

“This is a lot of work for one person. And is it really a job if you don’t pay me with money? All I want is food.” Jin rubbed the back of his neck. “I can make friends here. I’ll be happy. And I’ll work hard in school, I promise. I’ll only help out on the weekends or in the evening.”

Cal rose his eyebrows. If Jin wanted to use this to expand his horizons, who was he to deny him that? “Well, if you’re sure. No coffee for you, though, not until you finish high school.”

Business started booming, Cal had never had so many customers before. Then again, he never cared this much about the business before. For the first time, this job wasn’t a secondary priority, and the extra effort and care he started putting in was starting to pay off.

His brother started working as a waiter. While Cal made the food, Jin handled most of the customer interaction. And the customers loved him. He was sweet and polite, happy to do what he could to help.

He had trouble connecting, though. The customers liked him, but he had a hard time making friends. Jin had always struggled with that, Cal reflected. Jin didn’t seem to let it get him down, but Cal worried.

Then one day, an old regular showed his face again.

Shima passed by the truck occasionally, but hadn’t stopped by since Jin started working a month ago. Any time he looked over at the truck, he just frowned and walked away. Now Shima was here, but he still looked sad.

“Hi, welcome to Cafe Nom!” Jin grinned. “How can we help you?”

Shima smiled back, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You don’t mind if I ask the sandwich maker here a question, do you? I’ll make my order after that.”

“O-oh, sure! No problem!” Jin’s smile faltered as he moved out of the way so Shima could get closer to Cal.

“Hey, hot dogs aren’t sandwiches, you know,” Cal warned as Shima approached him. “I might have to deny you service if you keep spreading that lie.”

Shima completely ignored the remark. “You haven’t seen Yusaku at all in the past couple of months, have you?”

The question caught Cal off guard. “No, I haven’t. He hasn’t been here. He hasn’t been at school, either.”

“No sign of him.” Shima sighed. “He just disappeared without a word, you know? Not even to me, his best friend. Where’d that guy even go?”

“Well...” That was hard to explain without giving away all of Yusaku’s secrets, but Cal did his best. “He’s on a journey, you know? Looking for something. I’m sure he’ll come back when he finds it. And you’ll probably see him in school when he does.”

“I hope so. Just, if he comes back, can you tell him that I miss him? And I hope he’s okay, and that we’re still friends, however long it takes.”

“Sure.” Cal nodded. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear that.”

Three months, without anyone having heard a word from Yusaku. Cal hoped he was okay, too.

After that, Shima sat down at the table closest to where Jin was standing. “I’ll take two hot dogs, then!”

“Sure thing!” Jin told him. “Two hot dogs, coming up!”

Cal had the hot dogs done fairly quickly. There was a lull in traffic at the moment, Shima was the only customer there at the moment. Cal handed the hot dogs to Jin, and Jin gave them to Shima.

“Hey. You.” Shima pointed at Jin. “One of these is for you, you know. Sit down! Relax!”

“Uh, I...” Jin shot Cal a nervous glance.

Cal laughed. “Take a break. Manager’s orders. He’s a regular, so you can’t ignore a request like that.”

Jin nodded tensely. This had never happened while he’d been working before, so he was definitely still nervous. But he sat down at the table across from Shima. Shima slid a hot dog over to Jin.

“You’re the new student in class, aren’t you?” Shima asked. “You usually sit towards the back, rjght? I usually sit near you, so it’s about time I introduced myself. I’m Shima.”

“I’m Jin.”

“So, what are you doing here, anyway?” Shima asked.

“Um. Well. That’s my brother.” Jin pointed back towards Cal, who waved at them. “He runs Cafe Nom. I’m not really working a job here. I just wanted to help him out. He does a lot for me, so it’s the least I could do.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Shima nodded. “Well, if you ever need anything at school, let me know, okay? And, hey, do you pay any attention to Link Vrains? We gotta hang out sometime, I watch Vrains duels out of the time, and you’ll love it!”

Jin started picking up more confidence as the two of them kept talking, getting more and more excited. Cal smiled. It was good to see Shima again, and it was great to see Jin making a new friend.

* * *

“Who’s that?”

Cal looked up where Jin was pointing.

There wasn’t much to the inside of the truck. The secret rooms and computers were all still there, but still hidden. Cal didn’t open up that part of the truck at all anymore. Most of what was left was just the necessities of serving food. Ingredients, condiments, fryers and coffee machines.

Next to the window Cal served customers at, though, there was a single picture. It was a picture of Yusaku and Cal, standing in front of Cafe Nom. Takeru had taken it soon after he met them, and sent them copies.

Cal only recently printed this picture up and hung it up.

“Oh, this.” He reached up and took it down to get a closer look. “This is an old friend of mine.”

“A friend?” Jin looked closer. “I haven’t met him, have I?”

“Right, you haven’t. When we met...neither of us were in a good place. We helped each other a lot. He means a lot to me. And, I know I mean a lot to him, too. We have the kind of bond that can’t be broken, no matter what happens.”

“I see. He sounds important.” Jin frowned. “Where has he been?”

“I don’t know,” Cal responded. “He vanished awhile ago. No one’s seen him for awhile. But he’ll be back, I know it. Friends doesn’t really cut it for us, you know? We’re more like family. This is his home, and it’s here for him when he’s ready to come back.”

Family... Cal was the only family Yusaku had left, right now, wasn’t he? And Yusaku and Jin were the only family Cal had here. Yeah, Yusaku would be back, no doubt about it. Cal had no idea what Yusaku was looking for, but Yusaku would find it. And no matter how much Cal worried, he knew Yusaku would be okay. Yusaku had made it this far, nothing could stop him now.

“Family...then he’s kind of like my brother, too, isn’t he?” Jin smiled. “I hope he comes back soon, then. I can’t wait to meet him.”


End file.
